The Benevolent Brain Morro Bay May 18, 2012 Rick Hanson, Ph.D. The Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom WiseBrain.org RickHanson.net drrh@comcast.net 1
Topics Using your mind to change your brain Loving nature Generosity Two wolves in the heart Taking in the good 2
Using Your Mind to Change Your Brain 3
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A Neuron 5
Fact #1 As your brain changes, your mind changes . 6
Ways That Brain Can Change Mind For better: A little caffeine: more alertness Thicker insula: more self-awareness, empathy More left prefrontal activation: more happiness For worse: Intoxication; imbalances in neurotransmitters Concussion, stroke, tumor, Alzheimer’s Cortisol-based shrinkage of hippocampus: less capacity for contextual memory 7
Fact #2 As your mind changes, your brain changes. Immaterial mental activity maps to material neural activity. This produces temporary changes in your brain and lasting ones. Temporary changes include: Alterations in brainwaves (= changes in the firing patterns of synchronized neurons) Increased or decreased use of oxygen and glucose Ebbs and flows of neurochemicals 8
The Rewards of Love 9
Tibetan Monk, Boundless Compassion 10
Mind Changes Brain in Lasting Ways What flows through the mind sculpts your brain. Immaterial experience leaves material traces behind. Increased blood/nutrient flow to active regions Altered epigenetics (gene expression) “Neurons that fire together wire together.” Increasing excitability of active neurons Strengthening existing synapses Building new synapses; thickening cortex Neuronal “pruning” - “use it or lose it” 11
Lazar, et al. 2005. Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport , 16, 1893-1897. 12
Honoring Experience One’s experience matters . Both for how it feels in the moment and for the lasting residues it leaves behind, woven into the fabric of a person’s brain and being. 13
Fact #3 You can use your mind to change your brain to change your mind for the better. This is self-directed neuroplasticity. How to do this, in skillful ways? 14
Loving Nature 15
Evolutionary History The Triune Brain 16
Three Stages of Brain Evolution Reptilian: Brainstem, cerebellum, hypothalamus Reactive and reflexive Avoid hazards Mammalian: Limbic system, cingulate, early cortex Memory, emotion, social behavior Approach rewards Human: Massive cerebral cortex Abstract thought, language, cooperative planning, empathy Attach to “us” 17
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Home Base of the Human Brain When not threatened, ill, in pain, hungry, upset, or chemically disturbed, most people settle into being: Peaceful (the Avoid system) Happy (the Approach system) Loving (the Attach system) This is the brain in its natural, Responsive mode. 19
The Responsive Mode 20
The Social Brain Social capabilities have been a primary driver of brain evolution. Reptiles and fish avoid and approach. Mammals and birds attach as well - especially primates and humans. Mammals and birds have bigger brains than reptiles and fish. The more social the primate species, the bigger the cortex. Since the first hominids began making tools ~ 2.5 million years ago, the brain has roughly tripled in size, much of its build-out devoted to social functions (e.g., cooperative planning, empathy, language). The growing brain needed a longer childhood, which required greater pair bonding and band cohesion. 21
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All sentient beings developed through natural selection in such a way that pleasant sensations serve as their guide, and especially the pleasure derived from sociability and from loving our families. Charles Darwin 25
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Generosity 44
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If there is anything I have learned about [people], it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released. (Hu)mankind is waiting and longing for those who can accomplish the task of untying what is knotted, and bringing these underground waters to the surface. 46 Albert Schweitzer
If people knew, as I know, the results of giving and sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would they allow the stain of niggardliness to obsess them and root in their minds. Even if it were their last morsel, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared it, if there were someone to share it with. The Buddha 47
Generosity Takes Many Forms Attention Heart Practice Time Patience Service Food Money 48
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Two Wolves in the Heart 52
But to Cope with Urgent Needs, We Leave Home . . . Avoid : When we feel threatened or harmed Approach : When we can’t attain important goals Attach : When we feel isolated, disconnected, unseen, unappreciated, unloved This is the brain in its Reactive mode of functioning - a kind of inner homelessness. 53
The Reactive Mode 54
Us and Them Core evolutionary strategy: within-group cooperation, and between-group aggression. Both capacities and tendencies are hard-wired into our brains, ready for activation. And there is individual variation. Our biological nature is much more inclined toward cooperative sociability than toward aggression and indifference or cruelty. We are just very reactive to social distinctions and threats. That reactivity is intensified and often exploited by economic, cultural, and religious factors. Two wolves in your heart: Love sees a vast circle in which all beings are “us.” Hate sees a small circle of “us,” even only the self. 55 Which one will you feed?
In between-family fights, the baboon’s ‘I’ expands to include all of her close kin; in within-family fights, it contracts to include only herself. This explanation serves for baboons as much as for the Montagues and Capulets. Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth 56
A Poignant Truth Mother Nature is tilted toward producing gene copies. But tilted against personal quality of life. And at the societal level, we have caveman/cavewoman brains armed with nuclear weapons. What shall we do? 57
We can deliberately use the mind to change the brain for the better. 58
Choices . . . Or? Reactive Mode Responsive Mode 59
Taking in the Good 60
The Importance of Inner Resources Examples: Freud’s “positive introjects” Intrapersonal factors/processes of resilience, such as: learned optimism, emotional intelligence, “ego strength,” self-worth, determination, problem-solving skills, and personally meaningful spirituality Benefits Lift mood and increase positive emotions: many physical and mental health benefits Improve self-regulation Improve outlook on world, self, and future 61 Increase resilience
How to Take in the Good (TIG) 1. Have a good experience. You are already having one. You deliberately recognize a good fact and let it become a good experience. 2. Extend the good experience in: Time - for 10-20-30+ seconds Space - in your body and feelings Intensity - help it become stronger 3. Absorb the good experience by intending and sensing that is becoming a part of you, woven into 62 the fabric of your brain and being.
Types of Good Facts Conditions (e.g., food, shelter, fresh air, have friends, dog loves you, flowers blooming, ain’t dead yet) Events (e.g., finished a load of laundry, someone was friendly to you, this cookie tastes good) Qualities within oneself (e.g., fairness, decency, determination, good at baking, loving toward kids) 63
Components of a Good Experience Bodily states - healthy arousal; PNS; vitality Emotions - both feelings and mood Views - expectations; object relations; perspectives on self, world, past and future Behaviors - repertoire; inclinations 64
Instances of Taking in the Good You find yourself already having a good experience. You self-activate a good experience by: Looking for a good fact Recalling a good fact Creating a good fact Imagining a good fact that has never been Situations: On the fly At specific times (e.g., meals, before bed) When prompted (e.g., by a therapist) 65
“Anthem” Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in That’s how the light gets in Leonard Cohen 66
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